“The world’s most useless airport” has finally welcomed its first commercial flight
Where is the most useless airport in the world? It is on the Saint Helena island in the South Atlantic ocean. The whole population of this interesting place is just about 4.5 thousands of people.
Фото: David Stanley/flickr (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
It is a volcanic tropical island. In its southern part there are some extinct craters not more than 818 meters high. All the houses are situated between the slopes.
Фото: Andrew Neaum [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Фото: David Stanley/flickr (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
The construction of the island’s airport cost the UK government £250 million. But soon it turned out that due to the severe wind shear and engineering miscalculation big planes were unable to land there. The tickets were not much popular as well. As a result, this airport was called the most useless in the world.
Фото: Andrew Neaum [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The first regular commercial flight landed on 14 October 2017. To complete the flight, a refueling stopover in Namibia was needed. It carried only 76 passengers instead of 99.
Фото: By Paul Tyson [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Фото: By Paul Tyson [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Фото: By Paul Tyson [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Today most cargo operations have been moved to a new port on Rupert’s Bay. But these nineteenth century warehouses still look awesome!
Фото: David Stanley/flickr (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
The island itself is a part of British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cuhna. It is famous for being the place of detention for Napoleon Bonaparte. By the way, a small part of the island (0.14 sq.km), which includes two houses where Napoleon lived, belongs to France.
Saint Helena is quite an interesting place. But you won’t find crowds of tourists there. Sea journeys currently take five days from Cape Town. Maybe, it’s one of the best reason to visit it?
